Tris rolled in bed yet again. How can anyone sleep with the noise Briar is making? She thought before grimacing. Standing up in the dark, she didn't bother to put on her slippers or glasses. Hobbling out into the hall, she walked to the door next to hers and banged once.
"I'm coming in, cover whatever needs to be covered!" she said half expecting another woman to be in there with him. Tris stood in shock when she saw Briar sitting on the edge of his bed alone. His brown leggings that he had worn earlier still adorned his body but it was too hot in his room for his shirt.
"What do you want coppercurls?" Briar asked wearily, the usual smirk that seemed to be plastered to his face was gone.
"I came to tell you to be quiet" Tris said bluntly. "I keep hearing the squeak of your bed through the wall. I was sure you would at least have a lady friend in here."
Briar cringed. He didn't know how he could he explain to his foster sister about his nightmares, or his fear of sleeping alone. "I'll try to be quiet" he said before quietly adding. "I just need to get rid of these nightmares.
"What nightmares?" Tris asked curiously. Walking quietly, the girl sat next to Briar on his bed. "And don't say that I wouldn't understand or that it was to gruesome for me" she said warningly.
He sighed. "I keep seeing all the dead bodies from the war. I smell their blood and hear their screams" he said letting it all tumble out. "I...I hate sleeping alone, that's when all the nightmares come."
"I can believe that" Tris agreed. "Whenever I close my eyes, all the visions I've seen during the day come flooding back to me" she explained when Briar just stared at her. "I can see and scry on the wind. The visions were helpful in Tharios and still are now, but the winds never leave me alone anymore."
This was the first time the girl had come out and actually told someone about her wind scrying. "So we'll both turn into grumpy old people who never get any sleep" Briar said trying to joke around and lighten the atmosphere. That only caused the flowers on his arms to bloom little blue and purple forget-me-nots.
Tris rolled her eyes at the young man and his attempt to joke. She stood up, planning to sneak onto the roof to bask in the storm that was coming. "Wait, don't leave!" Briar said, wincing at the slight whine that coated his voice. "Maybe the winds would leave you alone if you found someone to sleep with."
Tris looked at Briar as if he had just sprouted branches and turned into a tree. "How do you suppose I do that? Just go find someone off the street?" she demanded.
"Not just anyone" Briar mumbled. He lay down in his bed and patted the spot next to him. "It will be like when we were all younger and would make a giant bed on the roof to all sleep on. That's it, just for comfort" Briar said quickly.
The look on Tris' face was a big enough clue to Briar that he would be alone tonight and was confused when she climbed into bed next to him and pulled the blankets over the both of them. "Goodnight" she said simply before turning on her side, away from Briar, and promptly fell asleep.
"Night coppercurls" Briar whispered, wrapping his flowering arms around Tris and fell asleep with his face buried in the crook of her shoulder.
No nightmares or visions plagued the two mages that night. Every evening after that, Tris would make her way to Briar's room to fall asleep in his arms, all visions gone during her sleep. This arrangement also kept the nightmares at bay, but explaining what happened when Sandry came to wake Briar one morning to go riding is another story for another day.